A/HRC/33/62
inevitably best to address the diverse and interconnecting issues characteristic of the rights
of indigenous peoples.
12.
Many indigenous groups in Cambodia have no written language, only an oral
culture. During a meeting in March 2016, the Minister for Culture and Fine Arts outlined
the measures being taken to capture traditional languages and preserve them digitally.
While it is commendable and arguably necessary to transcribe non-written indigenous
languages, there is a fine line between preservation and assimilation; care must be taken to
work with indigenous groups to ensure the maintenance of their culture and languages in a
manner which is acceptable to them. The inclusion of indigenous – as well as Khmer –
culture and cultural traditions in the school curriculum is important for all children. The
Special Rapporteur is aware of the difficulties encountered when a Government tries to
protect or preserve aspects of cultural rights, but recalls that it is for indigenous peoples
themselves to decide if they wish to change their traditional practices.
13.
The multilingual education plan of action launched by the Government in 2016
seeks to build on earlier programmes of bilingual education for indigenous and ethnic
minority children. Earlier versions were commended by the Committee on Elimination of
Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/KHM/CO/8-13, para. 20). Building infrastructure through
community schools, the Government hopes to secure bilingual education for the initial
stages of primary level study. The plan should be encouraged and supported with adequate
funding. The Special Rapporteur is well aware of the challenges of not only building
schools in many areas but also of securing trained bilingual teachers and appropriate
teaching and learning resources in indigenous languages. A general (adult) literacy
programme is also being implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in
rural communities. For indigenous peoples interacting with government (including
provincial) authorities, Khmer is usually the lingua franca. This has implications for the
realization of all rights, not least land rights.
14.
The management of land is an issue of particular concern to indigenous peoples.
Like many of the world’s indigenous peoples, Cambodian indigenous peoples frequently
live in a close relationship to the land, including rivers and forests. As Cambodian society
engages in rapid development, in conjunction with population expansion, there are
inevitably tensions over land.
15.
Indigenous peoples can benefit from the system of communal land titling developed
by the Government and promulgated by the Land Law (2001). Article 23 of the Land Law
offers a legal definition of indigenous peoples, which acknowledges the cultivation of land
according to customary rules of collective use. Recognition of these collective communal
land titles requires three principal, sequential stages: communities must be recognized by
the Ministry of Rural Development as indigenous communities; recognized communities
must then be registered with the Ministry of the Interior as legal entities; and communities
thereby registered must apply to the Ministry of Land for registration of their communal
land title. At the provincial level, there are steps necessary for each of the foregoing stages;
for example, determining the extent of land claims. The registration process can be
cumbersome for indigenous peoples owing to the costs involved (a communal land title can
cost as much as $70,000), the length of time for completing the process, a lack of awareness
of the process, and difficulties in fully engaging with the process because of language and
cultural issues. Communal land titles often take several years to process, from the initial
recognition of the group to the awarding of the title, leaving indigenous land in the
meantime vulnerable to encroachment by various parties. Indeed, applications for land use
or titles by private parties may proceed faster than the applications of indigenous
communities. During her mission in March 2016, the Special Rapporteur received
information on delays at the provincial level that precluded the completion of preliminary
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